2 HN users recommended this commentary2 months2015–2019score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN people use it as a quick, entertaining primer on territory status, citizenship versus nationality, and voting rights.
A Last Week Tonight segment on how century-old Supreme Court decisions left U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa without meaningful representation. It mixes comedy with a history of their legal status.
“John Oliver has a great, 13-min segment on U.S. territories” (HN, 2018)
That's a harsh interpretation to make of dragonwriter's comment. I read it as a factual statement about what the U.S. does with colonies by someone that probably disagrees with the practice. That's also a charitable default. If anyone wants more info on the topic, John Oliver has a great, 13-min segment on U.S. territories along with the clearly-evil justifications for their situation. Wait till yall see the Supreme Court ruling. It should get way more attention in media discussions on this topic. His finale with America's Got Talent contestant is also an epic counter to that. [this video]
Segment on US territories and justifications for their status.
Maybe it refers to US nationals as opposed to US citizens. For example, the people of American Samoa and Guam are US nationals but not US citizens, at least not automatically. But I don't know what all the differences between the two categories are. Reference: [this video]
There's one citizen type in-between the natural and naturalized (and below), it's the natural citizen in a US Territory. No votes for you. [this video]
If they become citizens, they can vote. They might be likely as a whole to vote for or against things that bother certain groups in Congress. That by itself will be a reason for those parties to prevent them from being citizens. We see the same thing with the islanders. [this video]
Territory residents and political incentives against citizenship.
The whole one China policy has always been confusing to me, but haven't done too much research. Taiwan, Hong Kong and China each have different entry requirements for example for visiting, yet they are supposed to be the same country? I guess it has to do with control after their civil war though, but confusing for people who haven't been following the whole story. They are not separate, yet they are separate is like some sort of double speak. But the US has some confusing things too going on, like people from American Samoa are considered US nationals but they aren't US Citizens. They still get US passports, but can't vote, etc. I guess they aren't technically citizens of any country then but aren't completely stateless since still considered a national. It's like they aren't really citizens anywhere but are kinda like a half citizen in a way since they still get a passport. John Oliver did a segment on this, [this video]
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